CHAPTER II.

PARTICULARS INTENDED TO ILLUSTRATE ALLUSIONS IN THE DIARY AND CORRESPONDENCE.

Lady Maxwell's love of retirement-From her youth and elevated rank exposed to temptation and danger-Relinquishes her gay acquaintances— Connection with Lady Glenorchy-They differ in religious sentiment, but continue united in affection-Account of Lady H. Hope-The manner in which Lady Maxwell spent her time-Her love to the means of grace -Constant thirst for full salvation.

FROM the date of the last extract Lady Maxwell's diary commences; and little more will be found necessary for a full developement of her heart and life, than to follow with attention her own copious and unreserved statements. By daily self-inspection, by a habit of turning her eye inward, of watching the movements of her affections, of analyzing her feelings, and attending to the bias of her will; she attained to a power of discrimination in the important science of self-knowledge, very rarely possessed. Hence it is believed that the enlightened and discerning Christian will find, in the following record of her experience, clearness, accuracy, and precision. But as her ladyship has only noticed outward occurrences, so far as they had an influence on her mind and heart, allusions to different circumstances will be frequently met with on which a few explanations will be deemed desirable. The following particulars may be here premised, calculated to throw light on different parts of the diary and correspondence.

Con

"From the time Lady Maxwell became a widow, she resided in Edinburgh or its vicinity; from which, however, as will be seen, she made occasional excursions to the south. But ever after her conversion to God, retirement from the busy scenes of the world was most congenial to her habits and pursuits. In the northern metropolis she had her daily walks of benevolence, seeking to relieve misery in all its varied forms: in name and character she was well known to an enlarged circle of religious friends; yet, as a person figuring on the stage of the world, or as exercising authority in the church, she was not known. Her influence became great, and her usefulness extensive; but it was silent, gentle, and unobtrusive as the fall of the evening dew. fined by choice to her native country, from which she seldom moved but when business called or health demanded, and then but for a short time, she lived in retired privacy, secluded from the gay and busy world. Being easy in her temporal circumstances, select and happy in her acquaintances, her path through life was generally even and her sky serene, presenting few, if any, of those varieties which are to be found in the lives of the principal actors on the stage of this world; or of those whose path is checkered with every variety of light and shade, their horizon having experienced every vicissitude between the cloudless noon of prosperity and the starless midnight of adversity.

Her life had a sameness, the sameness of matured, established piety, a blessed monotony of being, and getting, and doing good." This will in some degree account for a paucity of incident in the following diary which, in the estimation of some persons, might otherwise have been invested with an additional interest; but which need not be greatly regretted by those whose principal view in reading is the improvement of the heart.

Lady Maxwell was frequently the subject of severe conflicts; the grand adversary diversifying his mode of attack according to her age, experience, and circumstances. When she first entered the field of her spiritual warfare she was comparatively but a stripling; and from her elevated rank must have been exposed to imminent danger. If religion be at all times amiable and attractive, it is peculiarly so in the youthful disciple. It is here that it obtains its noblest conquests. When, through its sanctifying influence, we see the ardour and impetuosity of youthful passions kept within proper limits, and directed to noble pursuits; the vain blandishments of the world despised that the consolations which flow from the cross may be secured;—when we see the rich and honourable in early life, "choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season," we have indeed a convincing proof of the efficacy of grace, and are constrained to acknowledge that the gospel is "the power of God unto salvation." It was in the spring time of her days that Lady Maxwell gave her heart wholly to God. Being then in the bloom of youth, favoured with a person cast in nature's finest mould, possessed of a mind superior both in its kind and culture, each capable of raising admiration and commanding esteem; it is not to be wondered at that she had to grapple with temptations from the world, or that, in prosecuting her determination to follow Christ, she was daily called to deny herself and to take up her cross. The above qualities of body and mind procured her also various solicitations again to enter into the marriage state; by which she might have formed an alliance with the first families in the empire, and considerably elevated her rank; but whether from obedience to the apostolic injunction, "Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers," or on account of other reasons which cannot now be known, she never, except with regard to one offer, and that for a short season, entertained a thought of the kind. As her time and her talents, so were her person and affections offered a willing sacrifice to God: nor can there be a doubt that she ever indulged a temptation to revoke the surrender thus willingly made. In the contemplation of the divine perfections as displayed in creation, providence, and redemption, in the possession of her God, and in recommending to others the Redeemer of men, she found all that was necessary to give suitable employment to the energies of her mind, and to gratify the pure, and elevated, and enlarged desires of her heart.

"But if religion opens a source of pleasure, at once pure and varied, rich and inexhaustible,-adapted to human society in all its varieties, and to human life amid all its vicissitudes, so it likewise presents its difficulties. It has not indeed yet been proved that these are more numerous, or more formidable, than those which are met in any other pursuit, whether of knowledge, fame, wealth, or pleasure and generally speaking, the Christian's difficulties gradually diminish as he proceeds on his way. As passion is overcome and controlled by grace, the affections deadened to earthly good; as the will becomes accustomed placidly to submit to, and cheerfully to enter into the will of God, and the mind formed to virtuous habits; as the rugged asperities of nature are filed off by the power of the Spirit, and smoothed to patience, long suffering, gentleness, and contentment,-difficulties are found to be duties, and duties are relished with delight; crosses form crowns, and temporal loss conduces to spiritual and eternal gain. Thus, as the Christian advances in the divine life, and in proportion to his advance his way becomes more smooth, the sky of his prospects brightens and extends, and the thorns of difficulty and opposition are deprived of their painful sharpness.

'Lady Maxwell's religion did not subject her to much opposition, though its connection with a particular body of Christians very early called into exercise her spirit of sacrifice. She suffered the loss of many things which had ranked high in her estimation; but she accounted them as dross, for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ. It could not be expected that many of her own rank would court her society, and among those who withdrew themselves were her early associates, and principal friends. Yet losses like these she scarcely felt, and perhaps never deplored. There were, however, at that time in Scotland some, though not many noble,' whose minds God had illuminated, and whose hearts his transforming hand had touched, who esteemed vital Christianity their highest honour, and made the cross of Christ the supreme object of their glory. Among these may be reckoned the late Viscountess Glenorchy. The piety of this lady was considerable, her usefulness great, her zeal for orthodoxy standing at a high temperature; and her attachment to Lady Maxwell was strong, sincere, and unaltered, in life and in death. And yet, such is the frailty of human nature, this friendship had its alloy, which occasioned both parties sincere sorrow. "Wilhelmina Maxwell, afterward Lady Glenorchy, was youngest daughter of Dr. William Maxwell, Esq., of Preston, in Dumfrieshire, and sister to the countess of Sutherland. She

*

* Dr. William Maxwell died four months before the birth of this daugh ter; and his widow, afterward the venerable Lady Alva, wishing to perpe tuate the name of a husband so dear, called the fatherless child Wilhelmina. -Dr. Gibbon's Mem. of Eminently Pious Women, vol. ii, p. 264.

was early married to John, Lord Viscount Glenorchy, only son of the late earl of Breadalbane, whose death, soon after, left her a very young widow. 'Her understanding (says her biographer, the late Rev. Dr. Gillies of Glasgow) was naturally strong, and her memory retentive. Her mind was polished by a liberal education, and richly furnished by extensive reading and observation. Her person was agreeable, her manners engaging, her fancy brilliant, and attended by a constant flow of good humour.' But, though fitted to shine in courts,' being visited by sickness in her twenty-third year, she upon recovery resolved to prefer devotion and utility to gayety and thoughtlessness; and her conduct through life afterward proved that her faith was not fruitless of good works. Her private charities were indeed numberless, and great part of them unknown. To some ministers, whose congregations were not affluent, she paid regular salaries; to others, occasional donations; and to many others, stated annuities. Beside the elegant chapel at Edinburgh, which cost about £6000, and which bears her name, she built and endowed a church at Strathfillar, in Perthshire; and purchased chapels at Matlock, in Derbyshire; at Carlisle, at Workington, and at Newton Burhill, in Devonshire; beside contributing, along with Lady Henrietta Hope, to the erection of Hope Chapel at Bristol. This excellent lady died at Edinburgh, July 17th, 1786, leaving £5000 to the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge; £5000 for educating young men for the ministry in England; and most of the rest of her fortune, which was considerable, to other pious and charitable uses." Such a remarkable similarity in the rank and situation of these two ladies,their personal endowments, and mental accomplishments,-the manner in which a wise Providence had treated them,-and the means which sovereign grace had employed to save them, were so simultaneous as seemed sufficient to draw them together as by reciprocal attraction, and blend their congenial souls in one. But, although in feeling, affection, and pursuits, they remained one, the harmony of sentiment was soon broken, and on certain subjects they ceased to see eye to eye. The Viscountess Glenorchy, for a considerable time, was an intimate friend of the Rev. John Wesley, one of his greatest admirers, and regularly attended the ministry of the preachers in connection with him, at the Wesleyan chapel in Edinburgh. But on the republication of Mr. Hervey's letters,† accompanied by a preface written in the true spirit of a dogmatical and angry controvertist, a general suspicion was excited against what was called the unsoundness of Mr. Wesley's principles. It was then that Lady Glenorchy, along with some other persons of distinction, began to view Mr. Wesley as a teacher of heterodox opinions, and under that view

* Encyclop. Perthen., art. Maxwell. † See note, p. 21.

withdrew from him their countenance. They went farther, and a powerful and determined opposition was set up. And it certainly cannot now be denied that if that system of doctrines, which has in this country, it is presumed proudly and exclusively, arrogated to itself the imposing appellation of orthodoxy, be right, Mr. Wesley and his adherents have all along, even from the beginning, been decidedly in the wrong. If Calvin and Whitefield taught nothing but the infallible truth as it is in Jesus, a host of most distinguished divines, as well as Wesley and Fletcher, have erred from that truth. But these are points

on which the learned and pious still see cause to differ: there are, however, some favourable indications that they are learning more and more to avoid questions which gender strife, and to contend principally for those essential doctrines in which all, who hold the head, cordially agree.*

"On these controverted subjects, Lady Maxwell thought for herself; and all who know the character and strength of her thinking powers, the degree in which her mind was furnished with whatever might aid its natural energies in its search after truth; the calm, the close, the dispassionate way in which she applied her mind to investigate any subject of importance; all such persons will not hesitate in allowing that she was quite as competent to judge and to decide as any other of her rank; and will believe that she acted conscientiously, and from conviction, in the formation of her religious creed. And, notwithstanding she had to subdue the almost invincible prejudices of education and country, she was led firmly to believe that the inspired volume teaches, in the unsophisticated sense of the terms, that 'God is loving to every man,' and would have all men saved;' that the righteous may turn from his righteousness, and die in sin,' and that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.' But, though she differed in sentiment from Lady Glenorchy, and some others of her early religious acquaintance, which at times occasioned painful exercises of mind, there was

6

*The following remarks, by an eminent Scotch divine are worthy of attention :

"Is this thing which you call orthodoxy a thing in which mankind are universally agreed, insomuch that it would seem to be entitled to the privilege of an axiom, or first principle to be assumed without proof? Quite the reverse. There is nothing about which men have been, and still are, more divided. It has been accounted orthodox divinity in one age, which hath been branded as ridiculous fanaticism in the next. It is at this day deemed the perfection of orthodoxy in one country, which in an adjacent country is looked upon as damnable heresy. Nay, in the same country hath not every sect a standard of their own? Accordingly, when any person seriously uses the word, before we can understand his meaning, we must know to what communion he belongs. When that is known, we comprehend it perfectly. By the orthodox, he means always those who agree in opinion with him and his party, and by the heterodox those who differ from hẩm.”Campbell's Lec. on Sys. Theology, p. 114.